Neem Karoli Baba,
the Teacher referred to in this passage, is perhaps best known in the United
States as the guru embraced by Ram Dass
(Richard Alpert) in the late 1960s in India. Generally referred to as Maharajji or Babaji, Neem Karoli Baba was, by all accounts, a sweet, simple man. Beyond
that, he is an extraordinary Teacher.
Although it is apparently uncertain when he was born, Neem Karoli Baba died
in India in 1973.

This selection is from the book By
His Grace – A Devotee’s Story written by Dada Mukerjee,
an intimate disciple of Maharajji. The book was produced after Maharajji’s
death in an effort to preserve stories about the Teacher and his life and
other memories dear to his devotees. In our view, it offers a fascinating,
moving, and inspiring portrait not only of this Teacher, but of the spiritual
process itself, whoever the Teacher, whatever the path. Another wondrous book about Maharajji is Miracle of Love.

We are grateful to the Hanuman1 Foundation at http://hanumanfdn.org which holds the copyright, for permission to present this passage here.
For more information about them, please write P.O. Box 269, Santa Fe, New
Mexico 87501.

In these paragraphs, Dada Mukerjee addresses
a question that concerns all spiritual seekers: How do we know when we are
in relationship with a Teacher, particularly if we have never personally
met him or her, or if she or he is physically deceased?

While, of course, the focus here is on this
question as it regards Maharajji and his disciples specifically, the counsel
offered by Dada Mukerjee applies equally to seekers of every description,
whoever and wherever we may be, and whoever may be the Teacher.

If Babaji is a
saint, actually an ocean of love and compassion, how are we to share, how
are we to enjoy that love and compassion? Can we have a claim? Can we have
a right to that? People are interested in so many things – maybe cricket,
maybe the cinema, maybe the sadhus2
or saints. We go to satisfy our passing enthusiasm and then we may forget
that interest. We may be going to saints or sadhus simply to satisfy our
curiosity and that ends the matter. But in the case of Babaji, like many
of the saints, there have been many persons who wanted to have some sort
of binding relationship – that our love, our interest in Babaji should not
end. We want to have something durable, something permanent, something continuous,
so that we can have a claim on him and he can also accept us and acknowledge
us. We become related when a saint or sage accepts us as his or her disciple,
when we take him to be our guru. Then we
have that kind of permanent, beautiful relationship.

Can we say that Babaji is our guru? Can we say
that he accepts us as his disciples? So far as a guru and disciple relationship
is concerned, that is made when the saint or sage gives mantra3
or initiates someone to the divine path or light. How is the mantra given?
Did Babaji give you mantra? Those of you who were with him may claim that
he has given you mantra, but what about those who have not met him in his
physical body, can they claim Babaji is their guru and they are also tied
to him and he has got a responsibility or duty toward them?

This institution of guru and disciple is as
old in India as Hinduism, as India's religious past. In most cases, there
may be a guru that is going to the home of the disciple after performing
some ceremonies, giving him mantra in his ear. These practices go on in
so many houses, so many villages, in so many states of India. But Babaji,
of course, did that only in a few cases. We find out that just giving mantra
is something like sowing the seeds – there are many different methods. A
small farmer with a very limited amount of land goes on sowing the seeds
in individual holes. When the farm is bigger in size, the farmer scatters
the seed. Where the land is vast, as in your country [the US], you have
various kinds of mechanical devices. Now think of the gardener or cultivator
who goes on growing the forest or the trees over the entire universe. Think
of God or the divine being who goes on planting the seeds over the entire
world. He must have some devices.

There might be some gurus, priests, who go to
each and every individual and give mantra. But the greater ones have got
different ways of doing it, for example Ramakrishna Paramahansa.
Sitting in Dakshineshwar, in that small ashram,
he went on initiating so many thousands of people. Was he pulling everybody
by the ear, taking them to a secret closed room and whispering the mantra?
What about Chaitanya4
Mahaprabhu, that great incarnation of Krishna,5
going through the streets singing the name of God? In Allahabad you will
find people are singing Ram6bhajan7 or
they are reading from the Ramayana, because Babaji used to say, “By
taking the name of Ram, everything is accomplished. In this Kali
Yuga,8 nobody can go for kundalini
yoga;9 they should take the
name of Ram.” This was Babaji’s way of scattering the seeds and
giving mantra.

There are those who have not heard those things
from Babaji's mouth. But it has been said that a sage or saint can
give you mantra in vision or dreams. Swami Sivananda,10 the
great saint who had so many thousands and thousands of disciples, says that
if you become interested in a certain saint or sadhu — and he speaks
of the great saints or great sages — if you become interested in him,
if you have developed a love for him, then you can take it that he is your
guru. There may be some one saint or sage who you begin loving so much,
that you would not like to lose him, that you want to feel that he is your
own. Now Sivananda says, “Take it that he is your guru and you can
actually claim yourself to be his disciple.”

There should be no difficulty in recognizing
Neem Karoli Baba to be your guru, though you may or may not have met him.
Even if you have met him and sat in front of him, he may not have told you, “Now
look here, I am giving this mantra to you.” He was saying Ram Ram,
that he was doing all the twenty-four hours, and saying that Ram Ram is
the be-all and the end-all of people's lives and that [by] taking the
name of Ram everything is accomplished. I think it all becomes so very easy
and so very clear.

Another question that comes is that if Babaji
is such a mighty person, such a great saint, how does he go on picking or
choosing his disciples? There are millions of people in India and in your
country, too. All of them have not been attracted. All of them have not
gone to him, neither has he come and visited your country and been with
you. Now ask yourself this question. How have you been drawn towards him?

I have seen with my own eyes that there are
many persons who have been interested in seeing Babaji or meeting Babaji.
They may have come to the ashram, they may have waited for him in the road,
but they were never able to see him because Babaji didn't draw them, didn't
want to initiate them. The old devotees in India have all seen this. We
would be ten sitting and nine of us would see Babaji and the tenth would
not. Or someone would be sitting on the road and Babaji would pass before
him and the person wouldn't see Babaji. Someone would tell Babaji, “So
and so is a great devotee and wants to see you.” And Babaji would say, “No,
I don't want to see him. He's a big badmash,11I
don't want to see him.” So I must say that nobody would come to
Babaji, nobody would know, nobody would feel interested in him, if Babaji
did not want it. Babaji has actually drawn me, drawn you, that is how we
are here.

When the farmer sows his seeds, he is selective
about his fields, choosing those which are suitable for cultivation. If
the land can be properly conditioned, then he would plant it. If the land
is rocky or barren, he would not sow seeds there. The saint or sage knows
that not every individual is suitable for spiritual initiation. Some might
be completely ready; their past karma12might
be going in their favor and they can be immediately called and initiated.
In the case of others, the guru would draw them near, watch over them and
prepare them. I believe that no one comes to Babaji without him wanting
them. We think we are running after the guru, but he is actually running
after us. Why does he do it? He is not fond of your money; he is not fond
of the sweet or nice things you talk about him; he is not fond of the publicity
you can make about him. It is out of sheer grace,13out
of sheer kindness.

1-
Hanuman, also Hanumat, is the monkey king who supports Rama in the Ramayana
(see note 6, below). He is the ideal of a loyal, devoted servant. (To return,
click text)2- Sadhu is the sanksrit term for monk or holy person,
a seeker of God-Realization (return to text)3- A mantra is a sacred syllable, word, or phrase, often
a name of God, usually given in secret by a guru to a disciple, to be meditated
upon and used in repetitive prayer. For more, click here (return
to text)4- Chaitanya (1485-1534) was a mystic from the Bengal
region of India (return to text)5- Krishna is one of the best known deities in Indian
mythology. He was the eighth incarnation of Vishnu, a principal god of Hinduism.
See also here (return to text)6- Ram, also Rama and Ramachandra, is the hero of the
epic poem, Ramayana. He was the seventh incarnation of Vishnu. Rama and
his wife Sita are considered the ideal of man and wife (return to text)7- Bhajan, sometimes bhajana, is the worship of God
or of a Teacher through music and song (return to text)8- Kali Yuga is one of the four ages of the world according
to Hindu reckoning during which the path of devotion is most recommended
(return to text)9- Kundalini Yoga, also Tantra Yoga, is a path or practice
intended to awaken the source of spiritual energy at the base of the spine
so that it will rise up and ultimately unite with the Divine at the crown
of the head. See also here (return to text)10- Sivananda, also Shivananda (1887-1963), is a famous
Indian monk and teacher (return to text)11- Badmash is a rascal or troublemaker (return to text)12- Karma, a term found in Hinduism and Buddhism and
increasingly elsewhere, seems to have various meanings, but essentially
it is the sum total of all consequences of all actions, good and bad, by
an individual in his or her current physical life and/or former physical
lives (see also here) (return
to text)13- About “grace”, see also here (return
to text)